Women and Indigenous Studies – serie

Can the specific concerns of Indigenous women be addressed within current mainstream feminist and post-colonial discussions? Indigenous Women and Feminism: Politics, Activism, Culture proposes that a dynamic new line of inquiry – Indigenous feminism – is necessary to truly engage with the crucial issues of cultural identity, nationalism, and decolonization particular to Indigenous contexts.Through the lenses of politics, activism, and culture, the questions at the heart of this collection – What is at stake in conceptualizing Indigenous feminism? How does feminism relate to Indigenous claims to land and sovereignty? What lessons can we learn from the past? How do Indigenous women engage ongoing violence and social and political marginalization? – cross disciplinary, national, academic, and activist boundaries to explore deeply the unique political and social positions of Indigenous women.A vital and sophisticated discussion, these timely essays will change the way we think about modern feminism and Indigenous women.

This wide-ranging collection examines the historical roles of Indigenous women, their intellectual and activist work, and the relevance of contemporary literature, art, and performance for an emerging Indigenous feminist project.

The buffalo hunter, the medicine man, and the missionary continue to dominate the history of the North American west, even though historians have recognized women's role as both colonizer and colonized since the 1980s.Kristin Burnett helps to correct this imbalance by investigating the convergence of Aboriginal and settler therapeutic regimes in the Treaty 7 region from the perspective of women. Although the imperial eye focused on medicine men, Aboriginal women played important roles as healers and caregivers, and the knowledge and healing work of both Aboriginal and settler women brought them into contact. But as settlement increased and the colonial regime hardened, informal encounters in domestic spaces gave way to more formal, one-sided interactions in settler-run hospitals and nursing stations.By revealing Aboriginal and settler women's contributions to the development of health care in southern Alberta, Taking Medicine challenges traditional understandings of colonial medicine and nursing in the contact zone.

Established narratives portray Indigenous unity as emerging solely in response to the political agenda of the settler state. But the concept of unity has long shaped the modern Indigenous political movement. With Indigenous perspectives and frameworks in the foreground, Assembling Unity explores the relationship between global political ideologies and pan-Indigenous politics in British Columbia through the history of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC). Sarah Nickel demonstrates that while unity has been an enduring goal for BC Indigenous peoples, its expression was heavily negotiated between UBCIC members, grassroots constituents, and Indigenous women's organizations. Nickel draws on oral interviews, newspaper articles, government documents, and UBCIC records to expose the uniquely gendered nature of political work, as well as the economic and emotional sacrifices that activists make. This incisive work unsettles dominant Western and patriarchal political ideals that cast Indigenous men as reactive and Indigenous women as invisible and apolitical.

Established narratives portray Indigenous unity as emerging solely in response to the political agenda of the settler state. But the concept of unity has long shaped the modern Indigenous political movement. With Indigenous perspectives and frameworks in the foreground, Assembling Unity explores the relationship between global political ideologies and pan-Indigenous politics in British Columbia through the history of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC). Sarah Nickel demonstrates that while unity has been an enduring goal for BC Indigenous peoples, its expression was heavily negotiated between UBCIC members, grassroots constituents, and Indigenous women's organizations. Nickel draws on oral interviews, newspaper articles, government documents, and UBCIC records to expose the uniquely gendered nature of political work, as well as the economic and emotional sacrifices that activists make. This incisive work unsettles dominant Western and patriarchal political ideals that cast Indigenous men as reactive and Indigenous women as invisible and apolitical.